Okla-homey
10/8/2007, 06:12 AM
Oct. 8, 1918 : U.S. soldier Alvin York displays heroics at Argonne
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/31562/2003393522274866667_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003393522274866667)
89 years ago, on this day in 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Born in 1887 in a hillbilly shack near the Tennessee-Kentucky border, York was the third of 11 children in a family supported by subsistence farming and hunting. The literally lived hand-to-mouth. After experiencing a religious conversion, York was baptized as a Christian around 1915. Two years later, when the United States entered World War I in 1917, York was drafted into the U.S. Army at the age of 31.
http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/28798/2003389546971509384_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003389546971509384)
Alvin C. York with his parents and brothers and sisters seventeen years before WWI around 1900. York is the tall young man in the back at right
York claimed conscientious-objector status grounded in his view he should not kill in accordance with the Ten Commandments. His claim was denied and York was assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division. In May 1918 York arrived in France for active duty on the Western Front.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/29214/2003359604767500996_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003359604767500996)
York's draft registration form. Note his statement on bottom left, "don't want to fight."
At the time, the 82d was called the "All American Division" because it was comprised of men from all over the country - unlike most divisions then in service which were built around regiments from a particular state or region. York served in the successful Saint-Mihiel offensive in September of that year and was promoted to corporal.
The events of October 8, 1918, took place as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive—what was to be the final Allied push against German forces on the Western Front during World War I. York's battalion was given the objective of seizing German-held positions across the Meuse valley.
After encountering difficulties in reaching their objective, York's squad of soldiers, numbering some 17 men, were fired upon by a German machine-gun position at the top of a nearby hill. As the Americans advanced, they encountered intense German machine gun fires from the left and right flanks and the front. Soon, German artillery poured in upon them, forcing the American attack to stall. The German gunners cut down nine men, including a sergeant, leaving Corporal York in charge of the squad. York recalled:
The Germans got us, and they got us right smart. They just stopped us dead in our tracks. Their machine guns were up there on the heights overlooking us and well hidden, and we couldn’t tell for certain where the terrible heavy fire was coming from…And I'm telling you they were shooting straight. Our boys just went down like the long grass before the mowing machine at home. Our attack just faded out… And there we were, lying down, about halfway across [the valley] and those German machine guns and big shells getting us hard.
As York wrote in his diary of his subsequent actions:
"[T]hose machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful…. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush, I didn’t even have time to kneel or lie down…. As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."
Several other American soldiers followed York’s lead and began firing; as they drew closer to the machine-gun nest, the German commander—thinking he had underestimated the size of the enemy squad—surrendered his company of some 90 men to York and his handful of survivors.
On the way back to the Allied lines, York and his squad took more prisoners, for a total of 132. Though Alvin York consistently played down his accomplishments of that day, he was given credit for killing more than 20 German soldiers. Promoted to the rank of sergeant, he remained on the front lines until November 1, 10 days before the armistice.
In April 1919, York was awarded the highest American military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/28327/2004576677468237330_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004576677468237330)
York back home with his mama
Lauded by The New York Times as "the war’s biggest hero" and by General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as "the greatest civilian soldier" of World War I.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/28327/2004504960769350427_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004504960769350427)
York photographed aboard ship on his way home sporting his CMOH and French Croix deGuerre
At war's end York returned home and married his sweetheart Gracie. They lived in the home built for them by the grateful people of Tennessee.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/28686/2003361246748962023_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003361246748962023)
York went on to found a school for underprivileged children, the York Industrial Institute (now Alvin C. York Institute), in rural Tennessee. York died in 1964 at age 77.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/29642/2003339915484297347_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003339915484297347)
York remained an avid shooter and hunter the rest of his life.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/31831/2003338182019910819_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003338182019910819)
York in post-war happier days
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/28791/2003308532381081216_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003308532381081216)
In 1941, his heroism became the basis for a movie, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.
Upon York’s death in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called him "a symbol of American courage and sacrifice" who epitomized "the gallantry of American fighting men and their sacrifices on behalf of freedom."
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/29163/2003333575610131040_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003333575610131040)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/24528/2001807470891028384_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001807470891028384)
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/31562/2003393522274866667_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003393522274866667)
89 years ago, on this day in 1918, United States Corporal Alvin C. York reportedly kills over 20 German soldiers and captures an additional 132 at the in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Born in 1887 in a hillbilly shack near the Tennessee-Kentucky border, York was the third of 11 children in a family supported by subsistence farming and hunting. The literally lived hand-to-mouth. After experiencing a religious conversion, York was baptized as a Christian around 1915. Two years later, when the United States entered World War I in 1917, York was drafted into the U.S. Army at the age of 31.
http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/28798/2003389546971509384_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003389546971509384)
Alvin C. York with his parents and brothers and sisters seventeen years before WWI around 1900. York is the tall young man in the back at right
York claimed conscientious-objector status grounded in his view he should not kill in accordance with the Ten Commandments. His claim was denied and York was assigned to the 82nd Infantry Division. In May 1918 York arrived in France for active duty on the Western Front.
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/29214/2003359604767500996_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003359604767500996)
York's draft registration form. Note his statement on bottom left, "don't want to fight."
At the time, the 82d was called the "All American Division" because it was comprised of men from all over the country - unlike most divisions then in service which were built around regiments from a particular state or region. York served in the successful Saint-Mihiel offensive in September of that year and was promoted to corporal.
The events of October 8, 1918, took place as part of the Meuse-Argonne offensive—what was to be the final Allied push against German forces on the Western Front during World War I. York's battalion was given the objective of seizing German-held positions across the Meuse valley.
After encountering difficulties in reaching their objective, York's squad of soldiers, numbering some 17 men, were fired upon by a German machine-gun position at the top of a nearby hill. As the Americans advanced, they encountered intense German machine gun fires from the left and right flanks and the front. Soon, German artillery poured in upon them, forcing the American attack to stall. The German gunners cut down nine men, including a sergeant, leaving Corporal York in charge of the squad. York recalled:
The Germans got us, and they got us right smart. They just stopped us dead in our tracks. Their machine guns were up there on the heights overlooking us and well hidden, and we couldn’t tell for certain where the terrible heavy fire was coming from…And I'm telling you they were shooting straight. Our boys just went down like the long grass before the mowing machine at home. Our attack just faded out… And there we were, lying down, about halfway across [the valley] and those German machine guns and big shells getting us hard.
As York wrote in his diary of his subsequent actions:
"[T]hose machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful…. I didn’t have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush, I didn’t even have time to kneel or lie down…. As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. In order to sight me or to swing their machine guns on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off. All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn’t want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."
Several other American soldiers followed York’s lead and began firing; as they drew closer to the machine-gun nest, the German commander—thinking he had underestimated the size of the enemy squad—surrendered his company of some 90 men to York and his handful of survivors.
On the way back to the Allied lines, York and his squad took more prisoners, for a total of 132. Though Alvin York consistently played down his accomplishments of that day, he was given credit for killing more than 20 German soldiers. Promoted to the rank of sergeant, he remained on the front lines until November 1, 10 days before the armistice.
In April 1919, York was awarded the highest American military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/28327/2004576677468237330_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004576677468237330)
York back home with his mama
Lauded by The New York Times as "the war’s biggest hero" and by General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), as "the greatest civilian soldier" of World War I.
http://aycu08.webshots.com/image/28327/2004504960769350427_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004504960769350427)
York photographed aboard ship on his way home sporting his CMOH and French Croix deGuerre
At war's end York returned home and married his sweetheart Gracie. They lived in the home built for them by the grateful people of Tennessee.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/28686/2003361246748962023_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003361246748962023)
York went on to found a school for underprivileged children, the York Industrial Institute (now Alvin C. York Institute), in rural Tennessee. York died in 1964 at age 77.
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/29642/2003339915484297347_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003339915484297347)
York remained an avid shooter and hunter the rest of his life.
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/31831/2003338182019910819_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003338182019910819)
York in post-war happier days
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/28791/2003308532381081216_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003308532381081216)
In 1941, his heroism became the basis for a movie, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.
Upon York’s death in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called him "a symbol of American courage and sacrifice" who epitomized "the gallantry of American fighting men and their sacrifices on behalf of freedom."
http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/29163/2003333575610131040_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003333575610131040)
http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/24528/2001807470891028384_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001807470891028384)